Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/IASF Palermo/M.Del Santo et al; Optical: NASA/STScI

Using Chandra and several other telescopes, researchers have found evidence that a white dwarf star - the dense core of a star like the Sun that has run out of nuclear fuel - may have ripped apart a planet as it came too close. This composite image provides one of the clues: Chandra shows that the X-rays (pink) are not coming from the cluster's center, as is evident when combined with visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). Instead, the details of the combined datasets point to a possible tidal disruption where one astronomical object destroys another through powerful gravitational forces.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/ngc6388/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html